Zevin's first novel Elsewhere was published in 2005.
It was nominated for a 2006 Quill award, and she won the Border’s
Original Voices Award and was a selection of the Barnes and Noble Book
Club. The novel has been translated into
over twenty languages. In 2007 Zevin was
nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay for Conversations with Other Women which
starred Helena Bonham Carter. In 2014,
her eighth novel, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, debuted on the New
York Times Best Seller List.
Young Jane
Young is the story of Rachel Shapiro who has daughter,
Aviva, who aspires to a career in politics.
She becomes involved with a candidate running for Congress in Florida
and becomes pregnant and runs away to Maine.
She changes her name to Jane Young, and becomes an event planner –
mostly weddings – in a small town. Her
daughter is named Ruby. Rachel divorces
Mike. Her good friend, Roz, encourages
her to do some online dating. Zevin
writes, “I don’t particularly want a husband.
They’re a lot of work, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life
alone either, and it would be nice to have someone to go to classes with is
what I’m saying. I thought online dating
was for young people, but Roz says, it’s not.
‘Even if it is,’ she says, ‘Rachel, you’re younger now than you’ll ever
be’” (3-4).

Aviva changes her name to Jane and she picks up the
story. By this time, Ruby is thirteen,
and she becomes curious about her father.
Jane gives her a fictitious name, Mariano Donatello. Ruby is suspicious, and she begins an
internet search. She finally stumbles on
the old weblog her mother kept. She
becomes outraged at the deception of her mother. Jane decided to run for mayor of the town,
and Ruby sets out to torpedo her candidacy.
Lots of fun Yiddish words are used, and I knew a few
from my high school days working in a pharmacy owned by a Jewish couple. That may be the seed to my blooming interest
in Jewish comedians. Nonetheless, Gabrielle
Zevin’s fourth adult novel, Young Jane
Young is a fun read for every YA reader and above. 5 stars
--Chiron, 11/26/2017
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